CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Velez Rubio it runs 195 km to Velez Rubio; allow about 5 h 48 of riding. It goes by way of Izquierda E. de Santonje, Abrigo de la Esperilla and back through Izquierda E. de Santonje. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Almería is known for deserts and beaches, but its northern edge is a different country, a high, cold plateau of almond orchards and pine-covered sierras that the locals call Los Vélez. The town of Vélez-Blanco, with just over 2,000 people, lies under a castle on a rocky crest, and María and Chirivel are smaller places on the plateau. The region is protected as the Sierra María-Los Vélez natural park, and the air is clear, the sky enormous, and the nights cold, even in summer. In late winter the almond trees bloom pink and white on the slopes below the peaks.
Read the complete Chiquita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chiquita is where the day begins. Next is Izquierda E. de Santonje, 21 km on.
The Indalo is everywhere in Almería: a little stick figure holding an arc over its head, painted on houses, sold as a souvenir and used as the symbol of the province. It comes from a rock shelter near Vélez-Blanco, the Cueva de los Letreros, where it was painted in prehistoric times, and the area around the village is rich in rock art, part of the World Heritage rock art of the Mediterranean. The shelters around Santonje, near the villages of María and Vélez-Blanco, are among them.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Izquierda E. de Santonje comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Abrigo de la Esperilla.
Almería is known for its beaches and desert, but the north of the province holds a different landscape: high, dry limestone mountains with pine forests, almond groves and a series of rock shelters where prehistoric people painted. The Sierra de María-Los Vélez rises above two thousand metres, and around the town of Vélez-Blanco several shelters preserve paintings of the Levantine style, with small, lively red figures of hunters, animals and humans. UNESCO lists Spain's Levantine rock art as a World Heritage Site, and the Abrigo de la Esperilla is one of those painted places.
Read the complete Abrigo de la Esperilla write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach Abrigo de la Esperilla. Next is back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, 20 km on.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Izquierda E. de Santonje write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje, late in the day. Next is Chiquita.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chiquita write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Chiquita. That is the ride.
Chiquita → Izquierda E. de Santonje is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Izquierda E. de Santonje → Abrigo de la Esperilla is 76 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Abrigo de la Esperilla → back through Izquierda E. de Santonje is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Izquierda E. de Santonje → Chiquita is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.